Born May 1, 1918 in Salado, Texas (Bell County), Harold Watson will go down in rodeo history as one of Central Texas greatest all around cowboys.
His fabulous rodeo career started in 1933 at a Salado, Texas rodeo where the steer riding fee was $1.00 a performance and he won third place, which paid $1.80.
Harold Watson went on competing in bull riding, saddle bronc, bull dogging and bareback riding to win many championship titles, including the all-around saddle at Midway, Texas in 1947, the all-around championship at Ranger, Texas in 1947 (with the prize being a diamond studded watch), the all-around saddle at Killeen, Texas in 1949, and he was also the all-around champion at Waco, Texas the first year in the coliseum.
A small portion of the buckles credited to his wins are Goldthwaite, Texas, Brady, Texas-1949, Belton, Texas-1949, Lake Charles, Louisiana and Burnet, Texas. In 1950 at Temple, Texas Harold accomplished his goal by winning first in bareback, bull dogging and bull riding.
Harold had big wins at Houston and Ft. Worth, Texas in 1948 but he considers his biggest win at Corpus Christi in 1957 where he won two buckles, one in bull riding and one in bareback riding.
Harold Watson will always be remembered as one of Texas’ greatest cowboys with a big smile, soft spoken voice and easy way of going. His traveling buddies had this to say, “I hope my kids grow up to be as good a man as Harold Watson, morally and cowboy-wise”.
